It can be frequently desirable to monitor traffic on roadways and to enable intelligent transportation system controls. For instance, traffic monitoring allows for enhanced control of traffic signals, speed sensing, detection of incidents (e.g., vehicular accidents) and congestion, collection of vehicle count data, flow monitoring, and numerous other objectives.
Existing traffic detection systems can be available in various forms, utilizing a variety of different sensors to gather traffic data. Inductive loop systems can be known that utilize a sensor installed under pavement within a given roadway. Inductive loop sensors can be relatively expensive to install, replace and repair because of the associated road work that may be required to access sensors located under pavement, not to mention lane closures and traffic disruptions associated with such road work. Other types of sensors, such as machine vision and radar sensors can be also used. These different types of sensors each have their own particular advantages and disadvantages.